The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for proper instruction of drivers in the art of driving. More specifically, the present invention relates to objects or obstacles placed in the path of a vehicle to train a driver in obstacle avoidance.
The most important aspect of automotive safety is the ability of drivers to avoid accidents. Safety devices, both passive and active, can only act to reduce damage or injury to passengers and drivers after an accident occurs. The most effective means for reduction of injury is to avoid or minimize the crash. All drivers must learn the law of driving before they are issued a license and must have the basic ability to operate and control a vehicle. However, the amount of instruction and experience of the average driver falls far short of that needed to effectively avoid accidents.
One of the most common difficulties in accident avoidance is the natural tendency to look or even fixate on the object we are about to hit. There is also a natural tendency to drive towards what we are looking at. The eye-hand coordination is both natural behavior and a result of the driving habits taught and developed as part of the basic skill of vehicle operation. This natural tendency must be trained out of a driver to improve his/her driving skills.
Automobile drivers often enroll in driver instruction or driver safety training courses. Those courses which include actual in-car driver training, instruct drivers in the art of driving through a series of exercises which most always include driving through a course defined by standard orange traffic cones. These instructional courses include additional cones as obstacles to be avoided. Most drivers, whether they are teens or adults, focus on the cones, especially the cones that should be avoided. Focus on the cones usually causes the driver to steer toward the very object to be avoided. The result is an almost unavoidable collision with the cone.
Unfortunately, the use of orange traffic cones as obstacles often does not convey the seriousness of collision avoidance. Drivers do not see the cone as a serious object to be avoided. Collision with a cone is often dismissed in a whimsical manner and is regarded by some as a violation of a traffic rule and not as a safety issue.